Overtown Branch Praised

The construction of Interstate 95, built over Miami's Overtown neighborhood, killed its commercial vitality.

And for decades, no bank wanted to open a branch in this predominantly African-American neighborhood.

Finally, in 1994, a group of bankers conceived of a shared bank branch in Overtown. But Barnett, NationsBank and several smaller institutions were unable to pull off the novel idea.

Then Republic National Bank, best known for serving Dade's Hispanic community, stepped out from the group. Last December, it opened a branch at 1490 NW Third Ave. in Overtown to the applause of black residents and businesses.

Ken Thomas, a Miami banking consultant who helped develop the idea of a multibank branch, praised Republic for taking the lead when all else failed. "It's the Mother Teresa of banking," he said.

Republic Chairman Oscar Bustillo, who described the original concept as difficult to implement, said his bank opened the branch to help Overtown and reach beyond its Hispanic niche. Since Dec. 6, the branch has opened 100 accounts and done $500,000 in loans.

"I'm particularly proud it's our bank that took that initiative, because there's been so much talk of animosity between the black community and Latino community," Bustillo said. "I wanted to show the world it's not true."

Thomas and others expected Peoples National to take the lead in Overtown.

But Miami-based Peoples, the only black-owned bank in South Florida, lacked the wherewithal to invest in a branch in that community. Bank President Thaddeus Wilcox, who led a group of investors to buy the financially troubled institution in 1991, said it could not afford to try and fail.

Instead, Peoples turned its attention to developing two branches in stronger minority communities of Broward County - Miramar and Lauderdale Lakes.

Traditionally, large banks that move into low-income minority areas do so under terms of a punitive consent decree from a federal court because of alleged discrimination in lending practices.

Sometimes banks do it to quiet public criticism of a pending merger.

Still others do it to qualify for valuable credit under the Community Reinvestment Act, a federal law that requires banks to make loans in all areas where they take deposits.